Cadence Stables

We had some Christmas fun again this year. Love these kids, they show up and work hard for me even when I have crazy ideas like "Let's do a Christmas quadrille and enter it into an online show" 😁.

When I stopped micro managing I found partnership and a much much easier way of riding. Always always strive for better hands.

Micromanaging the head position of a horse is probably the most common riding mistake there is.

A horse is able to exist its entire life unridden, and it will do just fine putting its head wherever it wants to.

But now some rider climbs aboard with some agenda, and has hands holding reins which are attached to a bit which is in the horse’s mouth, and the rider is often possessed of an overwhelming urge to use those hands to “shape” the horse into some desired configuration.

The jaw of the horse is a hinge joint, and the poll of the horse is attached to the vertebrae of the neck, and either or both can be forced or manipulated into a position that matches what the rider wants, whether or not, usually not, that would be where the horse would carry its head if left alone.

This doesn’t mean that all horses should be ridden all the time on a loose rein with no contact, because the unridden horse is not the same as one being steered by a rider, but the training challenge has to do with HOW the rider creates a degree of control.

Gentle, feeling hands and arms or rough demanding hands and arms? Or, even worse, a reliance on sharper bits or leverage devices like draw reins?

The good trainers can, over time, create an “accepting” connection between hands and the general posture of the ridden horse, but it is both a slower and more meticulous process than most of us are educated enough to know how to do well.

That’s too hard a fact for many riders to accept. Hard hands, hard fact.

(photo---Klaus Balkenhol, knows the how.)

Meet Dave. When breeding to my dream Arabian stallion fell through I made this spur of the moment decision to breed to my neighbours young half German riding pony c**t. I knew it was going to be a decent competition prospect as Franklyn's older half brother Al Capony has been doing extremely well in the jumpers and has been a pleasure to work with. I did not expect THIS nice of a baby. Probably the best baby I have ever bred. Going to have a few more happy accidents with Franklyn. Will have to get photos of him soon as he is currently being started under saddle.